Attacks on the Press 2010: Ethiopia
Top Developments • Editor Dawit Kebede honored with International Press Freedom Award. • Authorities jail critical journalists, jam VOA Amharic broadcasts. Key Statistic 7: Hours that two newspaper editors were interrogated as Zenawi gave speech on freedom of choice. The ruling Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, imprisoned journalists, jammed foreign broadcasters, and blocked…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Iran
Top Developments • Authorities sustain their crack- down on critical journalists, arresting dozens. • Journalists face harsh prison terms and mistreatment in custody. Key Statistic 34: Journalists imprisoned on December 1. Along with China, Iran is the world’s worst jailer of the press. Defying international condemnation, the government sustained its widespread crackdown on the press,…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Kazakhstan
Top Developments • New laws restrict online news media, shield government officials from scrutiny. • OSCE chairman Kazakhstan undermines organization with repression at home. Key Statistic 44 Defamation complaints filed in first six months of 2010, many of them by government officials. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s government failed to deliver the press freedom reforms it had…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Kyrgyzstan
Top Developments • Bakiyev censors news media in a failed attempt to hold power. • Amid ethnic clashes, Uzbek journalists and outlets targeted for reprisals. Key Statistic 2: Ethnic Uzbek journalists imprisoned as of December 1. In a year of political revolt and deadly ethnic turmoil, successive presidential administrations cracked down on the press, using…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Venezuela
Top Developments • Censorship spikes: RCTV banished again, newspapers barred from using crime images. • New laws restrict Internet content, tighten control over broadcast licenses. Key Statistic 1,300: Hours of presidential speeches that were aired between 1999 and 2010. Using all the tools of power, President Hugo Chávez Frías continued his aggressive campaign to silence…
Attacks on the Press 2010: Vietnam
Top Developments • In run-up to Communist Party Congress, authorities clamp down on Internet. • Critical blogs targeted in hacking attacks; government complicity seen. Key Statistic 5: Online journalists imprisoned on December 1, reflecting crackdown on Internet commentary. Vietnam targeted online journalists in a clampdown on dissent ahead of a 2011 Communist Party Congress at…
Andrzej Poczobut sentenced to prison in Belarus
New York, February 11, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s imprisonment in Minsk of Andrzej Poczobut, a Grodno correspondent for the largest Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, and calls on Belarusian authorities to release him immediately.
Russian media combats false piracy prosecutions
Some good news out of Samara. As we’ve reported previously, trumped-up piracy accusations have been frequently used in Russia to intimidate independent media. Sergei Kurt-Adzhiyev, a Russian editor, has spent years fighting piracy prosecutions against himself and his publications in the region. This week, he was declared not guilty. Russia’s Finance Ministry was ordered to…
Azerbaijan denies Fatullayev’s appeal, defies ECHR ruling
New York, February 1, 2011–The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that the Baku Appeals Court has rejected imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev’s latest appeal and continues to defy a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that called for his release.On January 25, the court denied Fatullayev’s appeal of his July conviction on a trumped-up…